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Name:
Hunter!
Short Description:
—Hunter to Belos, "Thanks to Them"
Long Description:
Hunter, formerly known as the Golden Guard, is a major character in The Owl House, initially depicted as an antagonist. He was the right-hand man of Emperor Belos and the former head of the Emperor's Coven.
Definition:
After becoming the head of the Emperor's Coven, the Golden Guard acts as the main enforcer for Emperor Belos and antagonist to the residents of the Owl House. However, a chance encounter with Luz Noceda and the meeting of a mysterious palisman named Flapjack, who chooses Hunter as his partner, gives Hunter a new perspective to life outside the Emperor's Coven. This soon culminates with Hunter learning the truth of his origins. Upon this discovery, and realizing he can never go back, Hunter abandons Belos and the Emperor's Coven altogether. Following his desertion, Hunter relocated to Hexside School of Magic and Demonics in order to hide from the emperor's reach. There, he found acquaintances in Hexside's students, and after coming to terms with his identity, Hunter made it his goal to help them stand against Belos' plan to wipe out the Demon Realm.[7]
Following the Day of Unity, Hunter and his friends were stranded in the Human Realm and spent the months working away to return to the Demon Realm. Unbeknownst to him and everyone else, a remnant of Belos returned to possess Hunter, who nearly killed Flapjack in the process. However, this gave Hunter the courage to stand up against his uncle, but suffered heavy injuries from the possession. Flapjack sacrificed himself to revive Hunter. Vowing to honor Flapjack, Hunter accompanied his friends to the Demon Realm to save everyone trapped by the Collector.[8] After the group escapes capture by the Collector, Hunter helps evacuate the trapped residents from the Boiling Isles' destruction. Following the defeat and death of Belos, Hunter chooses to stay in the Boiling Isles to help rebuild it back to its natural self.
Four years later, Hunter becomes an accomplished palisman carver bonded to a blue jay palisman named Waffles. He remains close to his friends and Flapjack, whom he builds a memorial for to remember his late palisman.
Hunter, like the many Golden Guards before him, was created with the likeness of Belos' late older brother, Caleb Wittebane.[8] He is a humanoid boy sharing the physical traits of a witch such as pointed ears. He has a fair complexion, a slightly hooked nose, dark magenta eyes, thick black eyebrows, a gap between his front teeth, bags under his eyes, and ash-blond hair that is shaved below the top, with a long, jagged forelock. He has a notch on his left ear and scars on his right cheek, upper left arm, two on his right kneecap, forming an X-mark, and one on his left calf. He additionally has a sigil of the Emperor's Coven branded onto his right wrist. He is described as scrawny by Amity in "Eclipse Lake", although he has a larger build compared to characters like Luz, possibly because he is slightly older than them..
He is described as looking sickly by Emira in "Labyrinth Runners", though this may have been a result of his living conditions at the time.
While staying in the Human Realm, Hunter had his hair and forelock trimmed by Willow, giving him short bangs. When Belos possessed him, parts of Hunter's skin, left ear, and face became basil-green that spread to his arms, turning them into the ones of Belos' corrupted form while also gaining the blue eyes and antler-like horns of the latter. His hair also grew longer, which restored his forelock bang. After being healed from Flapjack's sacrifice, Hunter received tissue scarring in the areas Belos corrupted and his eyes became brown.
In the epilogue of "Watching and Dreaming", Hunter's hair has grown out slightly further, and he no longer has bags under his eyes. Additionally, a red tattoo of a cardinal covers the place on his right arm where his coven sigil had previously been, to symbolize the loss of Flapjack
During his time in the emperor's court, Hunter wore an ivory-colored hooded cloak with a golden triangle clasp, like other members of the Emperor's Coven. Under the cloak was a dark yellow long-sleeved tunic with a golden-yellow short-sleeved shirt over it and a dark brown belt, black leggings, dark brown gloves, and boots. He wore a golden pauldron on his left shoulder and a pointed two-faceted mask with a thin eye-slot across it. Underneath his tunic, he had a blueish-gray shirt and golden chest armor with brown straps.
In "Eclipse Lake", he disguised himself in a standard Coven Scout uniform during his excursion to the Knee.
In "Any Sport in a Storm", Hunter disguises himself as a Hexside student, donning a Hexside school uniform consisting of a gray tunic with a dark gray belt, cowl, and boots. His sleeves and leggings of his uniform are colored yellow to suggest he is affiliated with the Potions track. Part of his Golden Guard tunic can be seen hidden underneath his uniform, seen notably at the collar. Hunter also wore red socks with bird-like designs on them.
While hiding from the Emperor's Coven in "Labyrinth Runners", Hunter gets rid of his tunic and dons the shirts of his sports uniform again, albeit tattered and dirty, alongside a dark blue cloak with red patches.
After joining with the resistance in "Clouds on the Horizon", Hunter wears a pale rose-colored undershirt covered by a collared light brown shirt bearing a cross-stitch in the center, as well as a brown belt bag. He keeps the same gloves, leggings, and boots from his Golden Guard uniform.
Over the course of his stay in the Human Realm, Hunter typically wore a variety of short-sleeved button-down shirts, khaki shorts, no show socks and white crocs. By late October, he wears a yellow sweater with a left breast pocket, alternating his pants between blue jeans with a blue patch and red patch on the right and left knees, respectively, or blue pajama pants with a watermelon pattern. He wears either white or purple socks, along with red sneakers or white crocs for footwear.
During the Haunted Hayride, Hunter dressed as "Chief O'Bailey" from Cosmic Frontier, with the costume consisting of a black and yellow long-sleeved shirt with a planet symbol on it, a utility belt, black pants with cuffs and yellow edges, white socks, black and dark yellow shoes, and a robotic eye attachment. However, after being possessed by Belos and returning to the Demon Realm, he discards the robotic eye and removes the shirt, tying it around his waist, revealing a custom-made black wolf t-shirt underneath it.
In the epilogue of "Watching and Dreaming", Hunter wears a dark blue collared shirt with the sleeves rolled up, gray pants, an orange apron, and red sneakers with yellow lighting patterns across them. The apron features two pockets, one smaller on the torso and one larger at the waist, along with multiple sewn-on patches; a purple patch with the abomination symbol, a light blue patch with the illusionist symbol, and a yellow patch with the logo of the Emerald Entrails.
During his time as the Golden Guard, Hunter acted authoritative and confident in the persona, while praising the cause of Emperor Belos. He was, however, more laid-back and easygoing than Emperor Belos, being sometimes comedic and snarky in his dialogue. Despite his high-ranking position and upper-class status, he never takes advantage of his power for personal gain, only using his authority when ordered by Emperor Belos himself. He showed deep respect and love towards Belos, yet quite a bit of hubris and egotism towards anyone else, which earned him the dislike of many of his compatriots. Lilith described Hunter as a brat who was well renowned within the Emperor's Coven and would always receive special treatment for being a "genius teen prodigy", [9] although she may have been exaggerating to an extent out of jealousy.
He was, however, an opportunist who was willing to use blackmail or extortion to manipulate others, offering to let Eda and Luz go in exchange for slaying the Selkidomus, and then threatening to kill King when they refuse to do so. Whether this is due to pragmatism or simply laziness is hard to say, but having said that, he does give Luz a sword and does indeed let them go after he believes the job is done. Seeing as it was not done (and Eda is well-known as a con artist) might suggest some naivety on his part.[9] After seeing the portal key around Amity's neck, he attempted to steal it from her and threatened both her and Luz when the two were caught in a deadlock. Despite this, he was genuinely appreciative when Amity complied, showing that it was done out of desperation rather than malice.[10]
Despite his laid-back persona, Hunter was easily annoyed when things didn't go his way, as seen with his early interactions with Luz. He also seemed to have a fascination with wild magic, despite Belos telling him not to, and was seen expressing his interest in it toward Luz. In addition, he also possessed a hidden softer side, as he was sickened by the apparent slaying of the Selkidomus,[9] as well as being visibly affected by Luz's words when he tried to double-cross her.[11] His softer side grew more prominent later on after bonding to his first palisman, Flapjack, not only starting genuinely care for his,[10] but all other palismen who suffer.[12]
He was very loyal to Belos at first, even worrying about the condition of his "uncle" whenever Belos transformed. He occasionally offered alternatives to help Emperor Belos with wild magic, but also fearing his reaction to the mere mention of it. However, his loyalty was not absolute; he continually wondered why Emperor Belos had such a strong hatred for wild magic, but was always discouraged or even threatened by Belos whenever he brought up the thought. In addition, Hunter did not want to hand over Flapjack to Emperor Belos after the bird chose him as a partner.[11]
Even though he was committed to Belos and his supposed purpose as the Golden Guard, Hunter appears to be very insecure about himself. Ever since his failed mission to find palismen for Belos, Hunter showed signs of anxiety towards the idea that Belos would replace him and was desperate to get back in his good graces. When he failed to find any more Titan's Blood, Hunter began to suffer a mental breakdown and chose to lie in a grave rather than return empty-handed, showing that deep down, he fears Belos and the idea of what he'd do to him if he were to fail a second time.[10]
Due to being sheltered all his life by Emperor Belos, Hunter's social skills were extremely poor when interacting with others outside of the Emperor's Coven, having no comprehension on how to associate with others his own age. This made it difficult for him to socialize with students at Hexside while attempting to gather recruits for the Emperor's Coven, with him being dumbfounded and horrified by both their independent thinking and disinterest in joining the coven's ranks. This social ineptness also gave him a very limited grasp on how to have fun and understanding others' feelings, as he initially associated fun activities with Belos' brutal training methods for coven scouts and was unable to comprehend why others his age would object to joining the Emperor's Coven despite having to be separated from their families and essentially become prisoners.[12]
After befriending the Emerald Entrails, however, particularly Willow and Gus, Hunter's character and beliefs gradually began to change. During his membership on the team, his time amongst them allowed him to experience his first genuine instances of having fun and connecting with other witches his age, causing him to better understand and appreciate the notions of friendship and camaraderie. This was emphasized when, after coming to recognize the danger he placed his teammates in by handing them over to the Emperor's Coven, Hunter risked his life to help them escape from Darius' airship, despite doing so technically going against Belos' will and placing his status as Golden Guard in jeopardy.[12] Since then, Hunter's social skills gradually improved, as he slowly became more independent and open towards others, despite remaining loyal to Belos.[13]
During his and Luz's time in Belos' mind, however, Hunter's beliefs would be completely shattered after learning the terrible truth of the Golden Guard lineage, Belos' evil nature and goals and that the life he was raised in was all a lie.[6] This sent Hunter into a period of trauma and depression, in which he lost much of his previous confidence and became increasingly paranoid and sullen as he struggled to come to terms with the awful truths he learned. Additionally, Hunter's fear of Belos dramatically increased to the point where he would suffer severe panic attacks at the mere thought of being brought to him after learning the emperor had been looking to capture and terminate him.[7] Additionally, after learning that he is a Grimwalker, Hunter became deeply insecure about his true nature and began suffering existential crisis over his identity and place in the world. This left him questioning whether he was truly a witch or really human, and deeply uncertain of his individuality; whether he was his own person or simply a copy of someone else.[14]
Despite this, Hunter's kinder, selfless traits gradually came out more following his ordeal in Belos' mind. After accepting his life was a lie, Hunter promptly abandoned his loyalty to Belos, to the point where he risked being captured to protect his friends at Hexside from being forcibly branded with coven sigils, before officially joining the fight against the emperor and his genocidal plans for the Day of Unity. After joining the resistance, however, Hunter became much more humble, caring, and supportive as he regained his former confidence and determination, though no longer to the point of arrogance. Additionally, as his bond with his friends grew stronger, Hunter became deeply devoted to and protective of them, showing that he maintained his strong sense of loyalty though not in the same blindly devoted manner as his previous allegiance to Belos. Despite this, he remained deeply secretive regarding his insecurities, particularly about being a Grimwalker, out of shame and fear that his friends would reject him for being the clone of a former witch hunter.[8]
In spite of these lingering emotional insecurities, Hunter's personality tremendously improved during his and his friends' time stranded in the Human Realm, becoming much more cheerful, enthusiastic and somewhat geeky, as he came to enjoy his newfound freedom from Belos' control. Additionally, Hunter also possessed a deep fascination and fondness for many customs and features of the Human Realm, including sewing, wolves and especially the Cosmic Frontier science-fiction series, of which he became a fan of.
Sadly, this newfound happiness ended when Flapjack sacrificed himself to heal the fatal injuries Hunter sustained from being possessed by Belos, leaving him grief-stricken over the loss of his beloved palisman and first friend. His struggle to process his grief made him increasingly bitter and short tempered, much like how he was as the Golden Guard. This resulted in him becoming cold and distant towards his friends, to the point of furiously snapping at them whenever irritated or reminded of Flapjack. In addition, after returning to the Demon Realm, Hunter completely abandoned his traumatic fears of Belos, replacing them with a deep-seated hatred and strong determination to destroy Belos to avenge Flapjack's death.[15]
Fortunately, over the course of their return to the Demon Realm, Hunter was slowly able to recover from Flapjack's loss through the support of his friends. A major catalyst of his healing was when they revealed their awareness of him being a Grimwalker and voiced their acceptance of him regardless. This not only allowed Hunter to finally make peace with his origins, but also recognize how his anger had distanced himself from his friends, allowing him to finally open himself up to them and make amends.[15] In doing so, he was able to overcome his bitterness and hatred for Belos, coming to prioritize the safety of both his friends and innocent lives more than getting revenge.[16]
In the four years after Belos' destruction, Hunter has become increasingly mature, patient and happy, now being able to enjoy the life of a palisman carver, forever freed from Belos' toxic control and influence. Since then, Hunter has shown himself to be much more temperate and open towards others, no longer being afraid of receiving affectionate physical contact and finally entering into a relationship with Willow. In addition, he has also come to terms with and moved on from Flapjack's death, exemplified by how he has affectionately bonded to Waffles as his new palisman, while also continuing to honor Flapjack's memory in reverence for his first true friend.[16]
Palisman magic: Hunter, while initially lacking magic of his own, initially harnessed magic generated by his palisman staff due to the natural magic all palismen possess. With it, he was able to recreate the magic spells he used before with his artificial staff, such as teleportation, energy blasts, and earth magic. Although, as he was inexperienced at it, they lacked the same power as they do with artificial magic. However, he was able to wield this power well enough when he faced off against Amity until they came to a stand-off. His staff was also shown to block energy attacks such as King's sonic screech. As of "Thanks to Them", Hunter lost his staff following his palisman's passing; however, due to this sacrifice, he inherited some of Flapjack's magic and gains the former's abilities, such as teleportation.
Palisman communication: Hunter was able to communicate with and understand his palisman.
Teleportation: Originally an ability granted to him through his staffs, Hunter can teleport himself from one place to another in the blink of an eye. He frequently uses this ability to evade enemy attacks and move in high-speed dashes.
Glyph magic: When in Belos' mind, Hunter utilizes plant and ice glyphs to defend Luz from Belos. Later on uses it at the archives to save the Boiling isles.
Agility: Although not an expert, Hunter has shown some degree of agility and parkour skills. Hunter likely possesses these skills so that he doesn't have to overly rely on his artificial magic.
Combat: Hunter displays some degree of physical fighting skills, using his staff and agility to evade and parry attacks as well as to land physical strikes on his opponents. Much like his parkour and agility, he likely has these skills, so he doesn't have to overly rely on his artificial magic.
Sewing: After becoming stranded in the Human Realm, Hunter learns to sew after Camila teaches him how to use a sewing machine.
Carving: After Belos is defeated, he learns how to carve palismen. Within a few years he has mastered the skill.
Flight: Hunter can use his staff to fly. He is extremely skilled at flying, his skill impressing Willow when she was looking for team members for the Emerald Entrails.